• New Tonawanda to Buffalo Rail Trail

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

  by RussNelson
 
It doesn't cross the creek??? But that's the best part! You get the best view of the Erie / Conrail / CSX bridge to the east. Oh well, it's probably a money / ownership thing. It'll get sorted out in a decade or two.
  by SST
 
This picture was taken from my boat several years ago. I'm under NYC and the Erie is in the background. This would be a great crossing but I'm sure somebody will cry liability because it would also cross a live track [The Peanut]. Once you cross the Peanut and you stick to the row, it would cross commercial property, which use to have a concrete dumber [torn down]. Its all fenced in now too. But the property next to the row is commercial but open space. Perhaps something can be negotiated between the two properties.

But getting the path over the trestle, live track and commercial property is going to take a lot of work.....it also crosses the county line. Who knows.

Image
  by JoeS
 
I clicked on the link and on the map that came up I see a marker "F" not C... but the siding marked there served the Hambleton & Company warehouse on Young St. There used to be a chain of wholesale stores called "Brand Names" in the Buffalo area and Hambleton was the parent company.

As I recall the IRC right of way began diverging right around where the siding met the main line. I wish I could clearly recall what it looked like back then. But I can say that the siding was put in well after the IRC was abandoned.
  by SST
 
RussNelson wrote:It doesn't cross the creek??? But that's the best part! You get the best view of the Erie / Conrail / CSX bridge to the east. Oh well, it's probably a money / ownership thing. It'll get sorted out in a decade or two.
It will now!

I was up in Tonawanda yesterday and as I drove up on Young St to park the car, I see construction going on. As I pass through it, I'm flippin' because I see they are extending the path across Ellicott Creek and over the Erie bridge! They are about 97% finished. All the very heavy brush has been removed. Ties and rails removed also. New deck on the bridge installed. Excellent view of the active bridge from both sides of the creek. The path stops at Filmore. This is my only gripe.....for now. I was hoping that they'd take the path and cross the Peanut and connect with the path along Tonawanda Creek/Erie Canal. Oh well...….but this is a huge step! Here are some pics....

On the south side of the creek looking towards Niagara Falls:
https://postimg.cc/CZMkPC98" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

South side close up:
https://postimg.cc/CzyDTpWS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Opposite side of creek looking south:
https://postimg.cc/7GFCkStm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

End of path at Filmore Ave. The ROW on the other side of the street is under heavy brush and trees. The Peanut is just beyond the buildings in the background. They are installing new sidewalks all along Fillmore Ave all the way to the Canal.
https://postimg.cc/94TrCJKK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This picture shows where the path would come out on the north side of the Peanut. The Canal is behind me and I'm looking south.
https://postimg.cc/8syP82ss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
  by DGC-24711
 
SST wrote: It will now!

I was up in Tonawanda yesterday and as I drove up on Young St to park the car, I see construction going on. As I pass through it, I'm flippin' because I see they are extending the path across Ellicott Creek and over the Erie bridge! They are about 97% finished. All the very heavy brush has been removed. Ties and rails removed also. New deck on the bridge installed. Excellent view of the active bridge from both sides of the creek. The path stops at Filmore. This is my only gripe.....for now. I was hoping that they'd take the path and cross the Peanut and connect with the path along Tonawanda Creek/Erie Canal. Oh well...….but this is a huge step! Here are some pics....
Yeah the path "emptying" out at State Street was a real bear. Now you only have to ride north on Fillmore to E. Niagara/Erie Canal path.
End of path at Filmore Ave. The ROW on the other side of the street is under heavy brush and trees. The Peanut is just beyond the buildings in the background. They are installing new sidewalks all along Fillmore Ave all the way to the Canal.
https://postimg.cc/94TrCJKK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the picture looking across FIllmore (where the red line is used to show path direction), just on the west side of the overpass there is a single crossing light painted white. I wish that would be reinforced or taken by the people that run the E-L museum in the freight house on Oliver.

This picture shows where the path would come out on the north side of the Peanut. The Canal is behind me and I'm looking south.
https://postimg.cc/8syP82ss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I remember a bridge abutment there on the north side of E. Niagara that had sliding doors underneath. I wonder if the storage was there even when the train went over, or it was an alteration after. Cool stuff. It was removed last year when the business there expanded the building and parking lot.
  by SST
 
Back in the mid 90's I lived in Raintree Island apartments and would ride my bike down to the river. I would cross over the tracks all the time. There use to be two signals at this location. One at the crossing and one on the western side of the bridge. This light, was always on back then. With the path in place, they should hook the signal back up and make it functional again. Somebody removed the crossing signal long ago.

This area had lots of activity going back into the late 1800's. Some of the row's can still be found.
  by DGC-24711
 
SST wrote:Back in the mid 90's I lived in Raintree Island apartments and would ride my bike down to the river. I would cross over the tracks all the time. There use to be two signals at this location. One at the crossing and one on the western side of the bridge. This light, was always on back then. With the path in place, they should hook the signal back up and make it functional again. Somebody removed the crossing signal long ago.

This area had lots of activity going back into the late 1800's. Some of the row's can still be found.
That single light solid lit! Good warning for that blind curve indeed!
  by Fireman43
 
SST
Interesting back in 2015 you wished the trail would go to Fillmore - looks like it came true!! I see rails in the ground at Fillmore in your picture but i suspect only paved over at Fillmore?

A bit of a digression from this topic - but going back south a bit following the ROW to the area of United Materials , if i remember is there not remnants of abutments in their yard of an elevated ROW that headed NNE toward and over Ellicott Creek? And bridge abutments are evident there also at the ramp off the Twin City HWY. What was that ROW?

thanks
Mark
  by tonfire72
 
Those old abutments supported the elevated "High Speed Line" an interurban line that ran from Buffalo to Niagara Falls in the early 1900"s.
  by DGC-24711
 
Fireman43 wrote:On a different note, just to the east along the CSX ???? Main, the GE Plant along the 290 appears to be renovating their siding that serves the east side of their plant, as it looks they are adding some concrete pads along the sidings. Just curious of course. Am i correct?

Thanks
Mark
I notice that the GE signage has been removed from that building. I remember seeing a center cab switcher sitting on that siding long ago.
Fireman43 wrote:SST
Interesting back in 2015 you wished the trail would go to Fillmore - looks like it came true!! I see rails in the ground at Fillmore in your picture but i suspect only paved over at Fillmore?

A bit of a digression from this topic - but going back south a bit following the ROW to the area of United Materials , if i remember is there not remnants of abutments in their yard of an elevated ROW that headed NNE toward and over Ellicott Creek? And bridge abutments are evident there also at the ramp off the Twin City HWY. What was that ROW?

thanks
Mark
tonfire72 wrote:Those old abutments supported the elevated "High Speed Line" an interurban line that ran from Buffalo to Niagara Falls in the early 1900"s.
The wall that was in front of United Materials (just to the right of the red house) was removed a few years ago. The bridge abutment on the north side of Ellicott Creek, with years of painted over graffiti still stands.

On the Erie Canal bike trail, at the same point north from that bridge abutment, there's a small raise in the path, and I've finally realized why!
  by SST
 
Tonawanda and North Tonawanda both still have rails in the ground. Usually paved over but wear and tear bring them back to the surface. As I've said many times, I hope they don't pull them up. It's part of their industrial history. Don't screw with it. The path crosses both Young and Fillmore with rails in the ground. Everywhere else....gone. I kinda hoped that somebody would do something like the High Line in NYC. I don't want people to forget the history.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q ... 2523611205" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
  by DGC-24711
 
SST wrote:Tonawanda and North Tonawanda both still have rails in the ground. Usually paved over but wear and tear bring them back to the surface. As I've said many times, I hope they don't pull them up. It's part of their industrial history. Don't screw with it.

At the Wurlitzer building, on Niagara Falls Blvd in North Tonawanda, there are still rails in the ground. If you take the road (northern most entrance to the property off NF Blvd) all the way back to the end of the building, you can see siding rails poking through the asphalt.

Along that same road, next to the first parking area, on the right through some trees is a cement wall that was part of a coal off loading operation that sent coal on a conveyor underground to the electric generation area in the middle of the plant. That tower was razed a few years ago. You could see the scoops coming up out of the ground there.
  by BR&P
 
What a sad commentary on the industry we all love, that we have more to see sticking up through parking lots and traveled by bicycles than used for their intended purposes. :(
  by SST
 
I see that one of my posts from 2005 made it to the top of the list again. Good forecasting although it took awhile.

April 05, 2005:

" One other item that may have been discussed last year. All the rails, plates and spikes on the ERIE in Tonawanda from Fillmore to the Peanut and from Fillmore to the Ellicott Creek Bridge and beyond have been pulled up. Rail ties are still in the ground. Did I "hear" that a path was being developed for the Erie? Who's paying for it? Erie County?"